Chapter 117: Chapter 117 - 180,000 Wildlings Arrive at the Wall.
I intend to make some changes regarding Robb Stark, but I'll leave that for later when I have time.
In any case, it won't change the course of the story, and I'll see how I can better handle the North with the consequences of those changes.
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[Chapter Size: 2300 Words.]
Third Person POV.
Westeros.
...
...
In the following days, Jeor Mormont had a small uncertainty in his heart.
He didn't know exactly what it meant, but it was there, a feeling that something bad was about to happen.
It didn't even let him sleep properly.
He thought it was just the result of the stress from losing many rangers lately, plus the dead rising while he had no support from anyone with everything happening in the south...
He decided to keep it to himself, as anyone could call him crazy.
He wanted to stop thinking about that same feeling, because he didn't know what it meant.
But it was rooted in him, and his thoughts turned even to his family, who had marched south, wondering whether they had survived the chaos or not.
Even his son, who had ceased to be a traitor after receiving the royal pardon, and was now alongside Maege Mormont and her daughters fighting for Robb Stark.
At the time, over a year ago, he had certainly been surprised by his son's pardon when he received the news from King's Landing, as it had been a disgrace in his life.
For he had come to the Night's Watch precisely so that his son could take responsibility for House Mormont, and he had hoped that somehow, he was on the right path.
Disgrace struck like at no other time in his life when he discovered that his son was involved in human trafficking and was declared a criminal, having to flee to the North.
Now he was no longer a criminal and had been made a knight by the king — this pleased Jeor greatly.
Of course, Jorah was not seen the same way as before and certainly was not well regarded by the North, but at the same time, everyone kept in mind that he had been quite honorable in refusing Bear Island when the king tried to offer it to him.
"Why am I thinking about this?" he thought.
"Am I thinking I'm going to die soon?"
Jeor couldn't help but murmur, a little worried, while seeming melancholic, thinking about his family who could be dead, except for a few who were still on Bear Island — but surrounded by ironborn.
His gaze ended up resting on a raven perched on the window.
He immediately stood up and waved his hand with a shout, asking the raven to go away.
And it did, while Jeor watched it — and at the same time, other birds began to fly throughout the castle.
In recent days, this had become a common sight there.
For some reason, there were so many birds flying in and out of Castle Black.
"Why is this happening...?" he murmured, not knowing what it meant, but he could notice a strange way the animals looked at him, as if they were studying him and his men — it was bizarre in the Lord Commander's opinion.
It was a strange feeling, but he no longer believed in skinchangers, thinking it was all just fantasy.
He finally closed the window and went to focus on his duties as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch.
At the same time, in the North.
The wargs of the camp and Jon were analyzing the situation, while their eyes returned to normal on this mountain, returning to the leader with information about their enemies.
"What information do you have?" Jon asked.
"The Watch is not aware that we're approaching," Orell said to Jon while he watched.
"Very well, we're quite close to the Wall.
Let's wait for tonight to finally advance," Jon said, gathering with several wargs and other leaders in a corner of the camp, analyzing the situation and how to act.
He wanted to take the Wall by surprise, while at the same time leaving a wall behind so the Watch wouldn't try to somehow attack them while they were bringing women and children among the group.
"What do you plan to do?" Mance, who was with him, asked Jon.
"We'll march at night then with a few tens of thousands. They won't have a good view and we'll go unnoticed if we don't carry torches. I want to trap the crows at the Wall and I'll first negotiate their surrender, before the main force begins to advance with the entire camp. After that, we'll have nothing left to hide at this point," Jon explained while Mance nodded.
"In any case, bring me the man," Jon requested, as some of them went out and returned with a large man.
They threw him at Jon's feet, who observed him.
"So you're Craster?" Jon asked.
"Who the hell are you?" the man muttered angrily, after being attacked by thousands of free folk, who broke down his door without speaking and captured him, making him their prisoner.
Now, he was being presented to this strange leader — not to Mance, as he had heard was the one gathering all the tribes of the North.
"My name is Daemon Targaryen... and I intend to attack the Wall soon, to cross to the other side, where it's safer, since we're fighting the White Walkers and the dead — the same ones you've been helping, haven't you? And to think you would give your sons to them..." Jon spoke calmly, while the man turned pale upon hearing it.
Everyone looked on with disgust, knowing that, after a small investigation by Jon, he had discovered that this man sacrificed his own male babies to the dead, creating new White Walkers.
Jon still didn't understand how the transformation and power of the White Walkers worked, but clearly, this was a deeply evil act.
"I did it to protect us!" he exclaimed.
"Ask them if they'll protect you now — you might meet them directly in hell or wherever this world sends souls like yours," Jon said, then turned to his men.
"Put his head on the block. I'll execute him myself."
After he said that, the men seized Craster again, dragging him toward a fallen tree trunk.
The man struggled the entire time, trying to escape, wanting to break free from their grip as they pushed him to the place where he would lose his head.
"I did it to protect myself! I had no choice! Otherwise, we would've been killed!" Craster whined now, but it was useless — Jon was determined to execute him for his crimes.
Jon approached the spot and simply pulled the Darksister from its dimensional space.
"You have the right to say your final words," Jon said in a serious tone, placing his sword downward while keeping his hand on the hilt.
"You're all going to die! No one will survive what's coming!" he shouted in anger, though he seemed a little nervous.
"So be it... I, Daemon Targaryen, heir and rightful king of Westeros, and Lord and Protector of the Seven Kingdoms... execute Craster for his crimes against humanity."
He spoke while his men looked confused by that introduction — Jon wanted to get them used to those words, after all, they would be hearing it often in the wars to come.
Jon then, after saying his final words, cut off Craster's head, leaving the lifeless body there, with its head removed from the neck.
He simply wiped the blood from the sword and sheathed it again, asking Mance to take care of a few things while he returned to his tent, where he spoke and explained the situation to the four women.
Val and Ygritte would accompany him that night, marching south.
The entire camp was organized, while a group of over 20,000 men began advancing through the forest as the sun was setting.
Jon took only a few of his direwolves, keeping most of them with his aunt and Lucis for protection as always, while Mance handled the movement of the camp.
Two days passed as the group advanced in secret with so many men, and the Night's Watch didn't even notice any movement in the darkness, as the group stayed hidden in the closest forests during the day and traveled by night.
Until they were finally in front of the Wall, waiting for dawn — for that would be the moment they would act, just as planned during all those 20,000 years who now stood there.
A ranger was trembling with cold, scanning the area, when he saw the first men emerge from the forest, immediately opening his eyes wide.
"There are men out there!" he shouted, as everyone near that part of the Wall looked down and saw more and more men coming out.
At first, they might have thought these were the rangers who had disappeared, but seeing so many of them, recognizing the fur cloaks over something shiny they were wearing that looked like armor — and given their numbers — it was obvious this wasn't the case, as hundreds began to appear, marching forward.
The horns of the Wall began to sound at that moment, as the whole of Castle Black fell into an uproar, with the Lord Commander stepping outside to the shouts of his men saying that there were enemies and that they should prepare, grabbing their weapons.
Jeor immediately ordered everyone to get ready and made his way to the highest point on the Wall.
Those hundreds quickly turned into thousands, falling into position as they had trained for over a year, since Jon had taken over the camp.
When the Lord Commander had a view from the top of the Wall, he found 20,000 men down there, all in formation, and he furrowed his brow in shock.
It was a massive number — compared to the less than 1,000 rangers they currently had — but they still had the Wall to protect them.
"Why are they wearing armor?" one of the rangers asked, shocked, pointing as the morning light reflected off the metal they wore.
Jon Mormont furrowed his brow.
"It's not just that. They're forming up. Since when did the wildlings learn that?" he murmured in great surprise, because these couldn't be the wildlings he knew.
He knew how dangerous they could become if they learned to fight as a group.
Because, although they were numerous, they lacked order, discipline, and certainly leadership — let alone the ability to fight as a unified army.
They were powerful individual warriors, but not a great threat in mass when facing a southern army.
But now this...
Jeor Mormont could see that his fears of the past days were indeed real...
An attack on the Wall — and right now.
And they were already there, without the Watch having seen the group coming, which made it clear that this was the reason for the disappearance of the rangers.
Then someone finally stepped out in front of them.
Jeor imagined it might be Mance Rayder, as he had heard from Craster that Mance was gathering the northern tribes.
However, in the next moment, he realized he was wrong — and nothing could have been more shocking than what followed.
"My name is Daemon Targaryen," a single commanding voice echoed through the entire area like a thunderclap, frightening all the men of the Night's Watch with its sheer power — no man should have such a voice.
Daemon then continued.
"We are prepared to attack the Wall, and we will bring it down easily.
However, we won't harm you if you surrender.
So I will give you a few days for a response before we attack you for real," he said, returning to the group.
Jeor stood paralyzed, unsure how to react in those first few seconds, while the rangers were also confused, looking to him for guidance.
He finally snapped back to reality and turned to his men.
"Prepare to defend the Wall.
We won't let the wildlings into the South," he decided, as everyone began to get ready.
Jon had already seen their reaction up top and merely shrugged while waiting for the main group.
"This will take a while. Let's head back and prepare the camp," Jon ordered, as the groups dispersed, returning to the forest, and the rest of the day was spent organizing so they could rest.
Jon and the others still had plenty of time.
The Watch gave no reply to his warning — instead, security atop the Wall increased greatly, with men manning bows and arrows at all times, in addition to traps like giant stones and spiked barriers.
It was two days later that the main host began to approach, establishing a vast camp in full view of the Wall, with trees being felled to prepare tents and shelters for more than 180,000 people.
Since Jon had gathered more than 30,000 of them after taking command of the camp, this left the entire Night's Watch on high alert, as a massive camp was being built, the whole forest being cut down to raise tents — Jon already wanted the lumber, so he had the trees felled for storage.
The meeting in the main hall of Castle Black was far from cheerful, as men argued about what had been gathering behind the Wall for days.
They questioned whether they could really fight against such a massive number of wildlings — a force larger than any ever recorded in history.
Jeor found himself in a very difficult situation — first, the North had been invaded by ironborn.
A large portion of the northern army had been destroyed in the South.
The Boltons were trying to seize power in the North.
And now?
Everyone looked on with grim expressions.
An army of wildlings led by the infamous Daemon Targaryen.
War was at their doorstep, and the Night's Watch was left wondering who they should fear more —
The nearly 200,000 wildlings, or the monster who had caused all that chaos... alone, just two moons ago — especially with the news that he might have a dragon.
-------------Nexts Chapters ----------------
Chapter 122 - A conversation with Jeor Mormont.
Chapter 127 - Actions on Bear Island 01.
Chapter 137 - Last Hearth 01.
Chapter 146 - Entering Dustin territory.
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